Otley’s secondary school is to receive a £1 million-plus revamp thanks to funding secured under its new status as an academy.

Prince Henry’s Grammar School has been awarded just under £1 million from the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund to carry out a refurbishment of its Lower School, which dates back to the 1920s.

The money, £980,550, will – thanks to tax arrangements – cover £1.175 million of improvements, many of which the school has been waiting for decades to make.

The work will include: l roofing maintenance and adding £300,000 of insulation l stonework and render repairs, and replacing guttering l replacing all the remaining wooden windows l refurbishing the clock tower.

Internal works will include fully modernising the electrics, £75,000 of improvements to the flooring, and an upgrade of the boys’ and girls’ toilets.

Head teacher Janet Sheriff said: “This is excellent news which will help secure a much-improved learning environment for current and future students and staff.”

Out of 2,465 bids from 1,071 academies, it was one of 773 to be funded.

Prince Henry’s conversion to an academy – essentially an independent, state-funded school – proved divisive in Otley before it went ahead last December, and was opposed by the whole Town Council.

Town council leader Councillor John Eveleigh (Lab, Ashfield) said: “I am sure the school will claim they only received this funding because of their academy status – and in a sense that just demonstrates how divisive the Government’s education policy has become.”

The area’s three ward councillors voiced similar sentiments, hailing the award while voicing reservations about any suggestion it vindicated the switch to an academy.